Drivers fury at Paris 4×4 ban plan

PARIS, June 11 (AFP) – An association representing drivers of French four-wheel-drives accused Paris City Hall Friday of using “far-fetched propaganda” to argue that the bulky vehicles should be banned from the capital’s streets.

“Four-wheel-drives have their place in town as do all other vehicles,” the head of the association, Eric Breteau, told AFP.

“To tell people they have to have a small vehicle for the city and another for recreation is stupid,” he said.

On Tuesday, municipal councillors floated the idea of banning four-wheel-drives, saying they were not suitable for Paris streets – some of them narrow passages dating from medieval times – and were more polluting than the average car.

Breteau said such arguments were based on “far-fetched and wholesale propaganda” and accused the City Hall of selecting extreme examples to bolster its pollution statistics.

The Socialist and Green party councillors who dominate the Paris administration have in the last three years taken steps to address the city’s notorious traffic problems, notably through creating bus lanes and bike paths and cracking down on illegally parked cars.

© AFP

Subject: French news